Currently a pedestrian area and home to all the civic offices, credit institutions, and elegant private member associations. Once it was an exclusively residential area. The buildings in this road are both artistically and architecturally beautiful and include the the Palazzo Rosso and the Palazzo Bianco, home to important works of art and the Palazzo del Municipio, known as Doria Tursi, that since 1848 has been the prestigious headquarters of the Genoa Town Hall.
The railway station stop for the Righi cable railway, the traditional panoramic route that stops at various points in the upper and lower town, is situated in Largo della Zecca. This leads into Via Brignole De Ferrari dominated by the magnificent façade of the Albergo dei Poveri, a building that took 40 years to build and that today is a university faculty.
Piazza della Nunziata is famous for the majestic church of SS. Annunziata del Vastato. Via Balbi was opened thanks to the Balbi family who reserved all the residences facing onto the road for themselves. It is also home to the University faculty of Literature and Philosophy.
An itinerary packed with Noble palaces from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries; leaving from Piazza della Fontane Marose along the monumental Via Garibaldi which is connected by way of Via Cairoli to Largo della Zecca and Piazza della Nunziata which then leads to Via Balbi.
